


Undeveloped

by Wurstlover178



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Feelings, Humor, M/M, More Pairings as they Appear, maybe smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-01
Updated: 2014-02-01
Packaged: 2018-01-10 19:51:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1163800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wurstlover178/pseuds/Wurstlover178
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean Kirschstein, a college freshman with no idea what he wants to do with his life, gets nudged in the right direction when he lays his eyes on a stranger. Funny how a camera can inspire so much in a man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Undeveloped

There was something extremely intense about Jean’s new environment. Whether it was because of the football players trying to murder each other on the lawn or because of the competitive academic atmosphere, he couldn’t exactly tell. But then again, he was an intense sort of guy, and that was exactly what was so enticing about Shiganshina University.

He couldn’t even walk down the hallway without getting into some sort of verbal altercation. This was usually fueled by the fact that a good chunk of the population formed an unhealthy caffeine addiction during early adolescence and weren’t able to have their morning cup of joe.

Jean never fooled around with that sort of thing, putting an end to any one that tried to start anything with him. Being a freshman, however, not many took his threats seriously, and the tongue lashings continued.

Weeks of dealing with verbal abuse was more than enough to put a layer of hatred around his heart, and he accepted it whole heartedly.

Lectures were a struggle all by themselves, the subject matter going right over his head as he worried more about copying down notes than actually comprehending them. Sometimes, his professors would say something funny, something sarcastic to a sleeping student and he would loosen up a little bit, but otherwise, his calloused demeanor remained.

Whether he admitted to it or not, he intended to keep it that way.

* * *

The alarm clock he set up on his side table beeped obnoxiously, to which he lifted a heavy arm and slammed the snooze button. His roommate was no doubt already gone, a fact that he reveled in for the five minutes of peace that he had before the clock went off again.

“Alright, _alright!_ ” He really didn’t feel like yelling at himself that early in the morning, but his frustration was just about up to his ears and he had only been awake- or half so- for five minutes. He cleared his throat a little bit as he shut his clock off for good and shimmied out of bed. As if to taunt him, the surrounding air was frigid enough to raise goosebumps and leave him and his shirtless self shivering.

He didn’t even care that his nipples were glass cutters at that point; he just wanted to kill that Jaeger kid for leaving the window open.

A string of well-chosen words fell out of his mouth as he slammed the window shut and continued with his morning routine. Shower, dress, brush his teeth, leave. It should have been simple enough but-

“FUCKING JAEGER!” The shampoo bottle was empty.

Correction: _his_ bottle of shampoo was empty. Jaeger must have been too lazy to buy his own and ended up sapping Jean of his. After taking his pent up rage out on the wall of the shower for a couple of minutes, he realized he had no choice but to carry on his day with flat hair, and that was a nightmare in and of itself considering how much conditioner it took to make his two-toned hair look as fluffy as it normally did.

Luckily for him, the rest of the morning carried on without a hitch. His toothbrush, thankfully, didn’t taste like toilet water like it had a few days ago, nor did his wardrobe decide to pop its seams just as he was heading out the door. But he knew this good fortune of his wouldn’t last very long.

_Class #1: Algebra, 9 a.m._

The morning crowd was as angry as ever, and Jean happily fed off the atmosphere like the leech he thought he was. Gripping the strap of his backpack tightly, he shouldered past as many fellow freshmen and upperclassmen as he could. Though it was a tactic he adopted in order to get to his classes on time, it soon developed into a way to make his presence known.

Honestly, if someone thought him a bully because of his behavior in the halls, then he had no issue with it. So long as they quit being so god damn cocky about their newfound freedom.

Class started, he was a minute late and his professor was feeling rather lenient on that precarious Wednesday. Jean mumbled a little thanks to him as he walked in, head down and earlier rudeness dissipating. The professor certainly wouldn’t care about how pissy he was being, so he cut the charade and got to his seat as quickly as possible.

“So assuming you all read the assigned textbook pages last night…”

And Jean’s attention went out like a light. His eyes glassed over even as he got his books and plopped them down in front of him. It was all just an act anyway; so long as he had paper in front of him and looked like he was writing something important, everyone would ignore him and the lecture would continue as it normally would.

This carried on for an hour and a half, a period of time Jean spent scribbling tornadoes in the margins of his paper and bopping his chin with his pencil to the beat of a song that played in his head. When the class ended, he was the first to scramble towards the door, lead stained papers flying out of his books as he left.

Not that he cared.

He had a couple of hours to kill before his next class, but he would be damned if he did something productive with them.

The dining hall wasn’t as packed as it usually was, which threw him off a little bit when he grabbed his bagel, a cup of coffee and paid. The dull chatter of friends at lightly packed tables was actually pleasant to hear, as it successfully drowned out whatever he had running through his mind earlier. The assignment that was due in an hour or two was completely forgotten, the silky, sort of bitter beverage slithering down his throat in a way that made him slump his shoulders and finally relax.

Half an hour later, the assignment was remembered and he could have sworn a vein was popping out of his temple.

He burped and threw his empty cup away, the ever so light “Shit” coming out like a hiss as he got back into the busy atmosphere of college life.

_Class #2: Biology, 12:30_

Twelve thirty-five and Jean was standing outside his class with the angriest face he could muster. Professor Zoe was no doubt going on about a theory she had about the human body and how she desperately wanted to run some tests but wanted to do it on actual people and wasn’t permitted to by administration.

This in mind, Jean relaxed, realizing he probably wasn’t missing much anyway, and went to his dorm to unwind.

Of course, when he opened the door, Eren Jaeger was there. The guy was shorter than he was, with brown hair and green eyes, was constantly pissy and had daddy issues.

 Whatever the case, Jean had taken the time to memorize his roommates schedule as soon as he realized how much of a pain in the ass he was. The end of Jean’s Biology class was when Eren left for his, and they wouldn’t cross paths again until that night when they both wanted to sleep.

But that wasn’t his concern at the moment. He was too busy trying to hold back a snort of laughter as he watched Eren fumble around with a red scarf.

“Mommy couldn’t fix that for you, Jaeger?” Jean asked, throwing his backpack pretty much across the room to his bed as he did so. Eren’s brows furrowed and his already severe frown- this time due to concentration- got worse.

“Shut the fuck up.” He also had a problem with people mentioning his mother. He’d be damned if he knew why though; something about arguing with her and regret. Whatever. “A friend of mine-”

“Oh, that’s a surprise! You have friends!” Jean jumped onto his bed, laying on his side and propping his head up as he leaned on his elbow, all while snickering at his rude interruption of Eren’s no doubt crappy excuse for a girly activity.

“Ha ha” was Eren’s sarcastic reply, followed by a roll of the eyes. “A friend of mine wanted me to fix it.”

“Right,” To annoy him further, Jean dragged out the _i_ and laughed, only having a pillow collide with his face. “What the fuck, Jaeger? I’m just trying to talk to you.”

“More like trying to be an annoying shit head.” The intensity coming off Eren’s presence was enough to worry Jean just a little, but he still had a girly hobby and that was enough to keep him smirking.

“It’s what I do, baby,” He winked at him and held back a chuckle. “It’s what I do.”

Eren stopped knitting for a second to glare at Jean with enough power to bore holes into his head. He then looked back down and continued his work.

“You got a package by the way.”

Jean, honestly curious now, sat up a little bit, feet grazing the floor as he legs hung off the edge. “You’re joking.”

Eren pointed toward the door, a box sitting so close to it that he wondered how he could have possibly missed it. “That’s some sick joke then.”

The time it took for Jean to get up, get the package and throw himself back into bed was zero to none, extreme excitement written on his face. “Sweet! Mom must have sent me a care package!”

The scoff of a certain knitting grandma met his exclamation. “Mama’s boy.”

Jean looked up from his mutilation of packing tape. “Piss off. At least my-”

“I will stab your fucking eyes out.”

Jean’s thin brows bounced a little good humoredly then came together as he worked on tearing open the package. Packing peanuts and bubble wrap were the first things he saw, only showing him that it definitely wasn’t food of any sort and that she neglected to send him the slippers he so desperately wished he hadn’t forgotten. But that was beside the point.

“The hell…” He took the bundle of bubble wrap out and turned it around in his hands to get a better look at whatever was inside. From what he could tell, it was black and rectangular.

Definitely not food.

He tore the tape off the bubble wrap and proceeded to uncover what it was that was inside. Upon finally revealing it, he was a tad confused.

A Nikon camera, shiny and obviously fresh out the box, was weighing down and occupying his entire hand. The lens was shut to protect itself and the strap that tickled his lap just slightly was creased from being held in a folded position for so long. Still inside the box was what he thought was a camera stand, some rolls of film and an envelope. Being it was a film camera, it had no flash, but there was a bulbous, tumor-like thing on top of it that he took to be the viewfinder.

At this point, even Eren stopped to quirk a brow at Jean’s gift. “Bit upscale for lowlife like you.”

“Shut it, Jaeger.” The camera was placed on his lap and the envelope extracted from the box. The chicken scratch he recognized to be his mother’s hand writing was the only thing written on the envelope itself, but upon opening it, he was met with a little blurb, shorter than any rant she ever gave him in person.

_Dear Jean,_

_I know you don’t exactly know what you’re doing with yourself so I thought you should try getting a new hobby. Try not to break it and don’t do anything illegal._

_-Mom_

Jean blinked and turned the note over; nothing. He flipped it back and skimmed through the note again only to squint at it in confusion. Get a hobby? What was he, eighty and retired? There was no way he was going to humor his mother or her sick jokes.

Jean picked up the camera again and looked through the viewfinder at his room. It was true that he didn’t know what exactly he was doing in college; he applied with not a clue as to what he wanted to major in. He never had a dream job in mind, nor did he really have hobbies other than sitting around and playing Call of Duty, but he heard that college was the best place to find oneself and just decided to go with the flow.

And by the looks of things, his mother didn’t like that plan at all.

Eren came out of nowhere, or at least Jean thought he did, and laughed as he read the note over and over again. He even ventured to read it aloud in the girliest voice he could manage. “Jean, I know that you’re _a lazy little shit_ and _sit on your ass like a moody douchebag_ , so here’s a camera to _entertain your sick mind._ _Don’t take too many dick pics and try to make a profit, because no one wants to see that shrimpy thing._ ”

“YOU LITTLE-” Jean erupted, camera forgotten and hands reaching for Eren’s neck. If there was one thing he couldn’t stand, it was dick jokes, especially ones made to taunt his. Eren laughed and let the man shove him down and snatch the letter back, the frustrated huff he let out reminding him of a stubborn ox more than anything.

“Just do what your Mommy wants, Horse Face. She wants was best for you.” The sing-songy tone of his voice nearly made Jean fly off the handle again. But he held back from getting into a fight over a lame face joke and put the note back in the box, picking up the camera once more.

Looking at it again, he figured it must have been rather expensive. Whatever she spent on him was more than he ever expected her to and that actually made him smile a little bit. As controlling and annoying as his mother could be sometimes, he guessed she had the best intentions.

Experimentally, he put a roll of film into the camera, after a few minutes of fumbling and clawing at the thing, and looked through the viewfinder again at Eren. The brunette looked up at him, having gone back to knitting, but covered his face to the best of his ability with the scarf.

Which was fine because there was no way in hell Jean’s first picture was going to be of that prick.

The window being right next to him, he couldn’t help but look outside and have a little peek at the world with the camera. It wasn’t like he wanted to take a picture or anything; he just wanted to see how high quality it was. And, surprisingly, it wasn’t half bad, as far as he could tell. The leaves were certainly more high definition than he ever knew was possible and the people sitting around on the lawn were clear as day from up on the third floor. The road ahead was close enough for him to see the cars lining the sidewalk just fine, even if their license plates were a little blurry.

Not that that mattered to him or anything.

It was pretty good quality and he made a mental note to thank his mother for it even if he was never going to use the thing. He looked down at the camera itself, shrugged and was going to put it down next to his clock when a flicker of movement down below caught his eye.

It wasn’t really bright and shiny or colorful and vibrant, but the light reflected off of it just enough to catch his attention. He squinted to see it better and was surprised to see that it was just a bicycle, black and not very special. The man that was pedaling away on it looked pretty cheerful from where Jean was standing, with a messenger bag hung over his shoulder and a small smile that was somehow still infectious. No one that was on the lawn acknowledged him, but he seemed just fine with that, going on his merry way as he maneuvered around them on the larger than normal sidewalk.

Seriously, why did they have such big sidewalks? It was uncanny and led to shenanigans like this.

The bicyclist looked like an absolute dork with the way he seemed to sway like a bubbly princess singing to her animal friends. Jean, still watching from above, couldn’t help but notice extremely casual attire, no designer labels visible at all. From what he could tell, all that man wore was a dark red t-shirt, some faded jeans and sneakers to bring it all together.

A _click_ stopped Jean in his tracks, an eye he didn’t know he had closed opening in response. The viewfinder was a blurred presence in front of him, no recollection of looking through it just seconds ago coming to him. Even Eren, after successfully hurting himself with his needles, looked surprised at him.

“What did you even take a picture of?”

The question went ignored, mostly because Jean was busy asking himself the same thing. The bicyclist was gone at this point, but given how Jean was standing, he had a good idea what it was he snapped a pic of.

That didn’t exactly mean he understood.

Jean pouted in thought and put the camera down, turning away and sat on his bed. It was just a random bike rider, so what was so important about it that he had to take a picture of him?

Instead of having a big existential crisis over one picture, he shrugged it off as a simple fluke and looked at the clock. Seeing it was only ten forty-five, he realized he had a long way to go until his next class.

“Mama’s boy.” Eren scoffed, Jean’s quick “Grandma” quip putting an end to their interaction for the rest of the time he was in there.

**Author's Note:**

> Hot damn, I didn't think it would take this long for me to figure out how to post. I hope you guys enjoyed nonetheless. With any luck, I should be able to post another chapter soon.
> 
> Wurst, out.


End file.
